title: Unique activity of platinum adislands in the CO electrooxidation reaction.
abstract: The development of electrocatalytic materials of enhanced activity and efficiency through careful manipulation, at the atomic scale, of the catalyst surface structure has long been a goal of electrochemists. To accomplish this ambitious objective, it would be necessary both to obtain a thorough understanding of the relationship between the atomic-level surface structure and the catalytic properties and to develop techniques to synthesize and stabilize desired active sites. In this contribution, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study in which we demonstrate how this approach can be used to develop novel, platinum-based electrocatalysts for the CO electrooxidation reaction in CO(g)-saturated solution; the catalysts show activities superior to any pure-metal catalysts previously known. We use a broad spectrum of electrochemical surface science techniques to synthesize and rigorously characterize the catalysts, which are composed of adisland-covered platinum surfaces, and we show that highly undercoordinated atoms on the adislands themselves are responsible for the remarkable activity of these materials.
authors.affiliation: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Dusan S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Strmcnik
authors.forename: Dusan V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Tripkovic
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van der Vliet
authors.forename: Kee-Chul
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Komanicky
authors.forename: Hoydoo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Goran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karapetrov
authors.forename: Jeffrey P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Greeley
authors.forename: Vojislav R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Stamenkovic
authors.forename: Nenad M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Marković